Port Blair, Feb 06: Indian Coast Guard and the Airport Authority of India on 06 Feb 19, Wednesday formally signed a Memorandum of Understanding at Coast Guard Regional Headquarters (A & N) in the presence of Inspector General Maneesh Vishal Pathak, Commander Coast Guard Region(A & N). Indian Coast Guard has been entrusted with multifarious tasks ranging from maritime law enforcement & security, marine environmental protection and the most important amongst all is to ensure safety of lives and property at sea. Memorandum of Understanding with Airport Authority of India (AAI) is aimed at strengthening mutual interactions, interoperability and validating procedures during conduct of SAR operations jointly by the Rescue Coordination Centre (RCC) Kolkata, Airport Authority of India (AAI) and MRCC Port Blair, Indian Coast Guard.
Indian Coast Guard operates a 24×7 Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC), Port Blair, for providing prompt response to all distress alerts within Andaman and Nicobar maritime Search and Rescue Region (SRR).
The MoU is one of the various steps taken by Coast Guard Headquarters, New Delhi and AAI towards “Harmonisation of Aeronautical &Maritime SAR” i.a.w International Aeronautical Maritime Search And Rescue(IAMSAR) standards.
The Aviation industry is growing at a very fast pace, thus Airport Authority of India (AAI) has been taking all necessary steps to provide safety services including Search and Rescue within its Area of Jurisdiction. However, a SAR service over sea is a specialised task and requires skilled personnel & potential search units for successful accomplishment of any mission. The MoU is a step towards fostering mutual co-operation between the leading SAR service providers of the nation. The instrument has imbibed IMO and ICAO conventions, towards addressing the aeronautical and maritime SAR concepts and aims at improving the MSAR services in the region. A communiqué received from PRO Coast Guard.
